Weirdly slow office applications

[bearspa]

I seem to have a weird problem with Word and Excel (2003). if I click on
either shortcut, the program opens reasonably quickly, and then it also opens
any file quickly (whether it is from the recent files list or by finding it
through "File Open".

However, if I doubleclick the Word or Excel file directly (say in Explorer),
it takes forever to open Word/Excel,and then loading the file takes quite
long too. Same problem with rtf files created with Wordpad. Also, same slow
reaction if I rightmouse the file and either "Open" or "Open With".

This is a problem that only started overthe last couple of days, and I don't
think I've installed anything new.

I am totally confused.

Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted. I have also posted this in the
Word and Office forums. I hope that is acceptable.

 

[Terry Farrell]

That suggests the AV. Are there any messages in Word's Status Bar?

 

[bearspa]

Hi Terry:

The only thing in the status bar is the file name and its approximate size
(assuming that I am looking in the right place). By "AV", do you mean the
anti-virus program? How can I investigate this further?

TIA

 

[Terry Farrell]

Sorry. I did meant Anti Virus. Some AVs have a utility for scanning
documents as you try to open them and they don't do this well. Norton AV is
one of the biggest problems but that can be resolved by disabling the Office
plug-in option in NAV. Other AVs have different methods.

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm for some
further help.

Terry

 

[bearspa]

I guessed correctly the meaning of AV--I use Avast, and there is a little
ball icon that rotates when it is working. The ball does not move until the
Word program opens, then it rotates, and then the document appears a while
after the ball stops rotating. So I don't think it is the AV.

What is really puzzling is that there is no problem when I open Word/Ecel
and then open the document from within Word/Excel, only when I try to
double-click directly on the document!

 

[Terry Farrell]

Follow the FAQ.

Terry

I guessed correctly the meaning of AV--I use Avast, and there is a little
ball icon that rotates when it is working. The ball does not move until
the
Word program opens, then it rotates, and then the document appears a while
after the ball stops rotating. So I don't think it is the AV.

What is really puzzling is that there is no problem when I open Word/Ecel
and then open the document from within Word/Excel, only when I try to
double-click directly on the document!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

FWIW, I'm having a similar issue, but with a strange twist. If I open Word
(or Excel or Publisher) by double-clicking the desktop icons, they open
instantly. But if I use the keyboard shortcuts assigned to those desktop
shortcuts, they take 11-13 seconds to open. The shortcut is accomplishing
exactly the same thing as double-clicking the desktop icon, and in the past
the behavior was exactly the same as well. This has just started in the past
couple of weeks. It's very inconvenient because I now can't launch the
programs efficiently unless the desktop is exposed (so if I'm working in a
maximized Word window and want to check something in Excel, I can't just
press Ctrl+Shift+E and open Excel, except with a long wait).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Terry Farrell]

That's a little strange. I certainly notice that using an assigned shortcut
takes almost twice as long as a double-click for Word to open. But I'm
talking about approximations because Word opens in less than a second from a
double-click and barely a second and a half from a keyboard shortcut. So
although the keyboard shortcut does take longer, it is almost indiscernible.

Terry

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The strangest part is that it just started a few weeks ago (after more than
two years of using this machine). We were gone for three weeks (July
16-August 4), and on August 12 I got a slew of updates, including nine
security updates for Windows XP and one Security Update for Microsoft Office
Web Components. That was followed by a .NET update on 8/14 and another
Security Update for Microsoft Office Web Components. The only really bizarre
thing that's happened was that on 8/18 HP Update surfaced out of nowhere and
updated itself (and I've had some error messages from it since).

There were no further updates before 8/26, when I renewed Kaspersky Internet
Security, and I know the problem predated that, because for a time I thought
it might have corrected it, but no. It does seem to be a bit intermittent
(was working fine a time or two yesterday and then went pear-shaped again).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[bearspa]

Terry: Which FAQs are you referring to.

Suzanne: I had also posted this problem on the Excel forum, and got a
solution that worked for me. Thanks, Gord. In case anyone is interested,
here is the solution (the unregistering/reregistering did the job for me):

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I don't think reregistering Word would help, though your mention of it does
bring up the issue that I have two versions of Word on this machine (Word
2003 and 2007), and the shortcut is to 2003. But I've had two versions for
quite some time, and this phenomenon just started recently. Moreover, that
shouldn't affect Publisher, as I'm not using Publisher 2007 at all.

As for Excel, I definitely don't have "Ignore other applications" enabled;
if I did, I'd have trouble using it as a data source in Word.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Terry Farrell]

The one I posted three posts ago.
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm

Terry

 

[Bob Cattel]

I have seen this problem happen with clients that have HP printers attached directly to their home or office network and these printers are set as the default printer. If the HP printer is shut off (usually because of a power clitch) the HP Digital Imaging Software Monitor software cannot find the printer. The long latency is due to Microsoft Word waiting for the monitoring software to respond. Word eventually times out (after waiting) and then continues to open. Believe it or not just restarting the printer fixes the problem in this case.

Bob C.



bearspa wrote:

Weirdly slow office applications
06-Sep-09

I seem to have a weird problem with Word and Excel (2003). if I click on
either shortcut, the program opens reasonably quickly, and then it also opens
any file quickly (whether it is from the recent files list or by finding it
through "File Open".

However, if I doubleclick the Word or Excel file directly (say in Explorer),
it takes forever to open Word/Excel,and then loading the file takes quite
long too. Same problem with rtf files created with Wordpad. Also, same slow
reaction if I rightmouse the file and either "Open" or "Open With"

This is a problem that only started overthe last couple of days, and I don't
think I've installed anything new.

I am totally confused

Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted. I have also posted this in the
Word and Office forums. I hope that is acceptable.

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